What is Email Marketing and why it matters for your business in 2022?

It’s been more than 50 years since the first email was sent. With time, Email Marketing has emerged as one of the most powerful and tested marketing tools without losing ground.

However, with the advent of digital tech and social media, many businesses and marketers believe that email marketing is a dying breed! In reality, email marketing is still very much alive and should be a core part of your marketing strategy in the year 2022. 

Before we get into why email marketing matters for your online business in 2022, let us quickly understand what email marketing is?

Email Marketing – An Introduction

“Email marketing” is a form of direct marketing in which email messages are sent to consumers through an electronic mail (email) campaign with a commercial message. This message encourages recipients to purchase goods and/or services. Broadly saying, it involves the use of emails for requesting business, donations, soliciting sales, and sending advertisements. 

Email Marketing is referred to as sending direct emails to:

• Enhance the merchant relationship with a new or a current customer
• Convince current customers to purchase goods and/or services
• Encourage customer loyalty or repeated business. 

Marketing through Email is executed using varied types of emails, like:

1. Transactional Emails
2. Mobile Emails
3. Email Newsletters

Email Marketing is executed through different types of emails

• Transactional emails

Transactional emails are the type of one–to–one, automated email between the sender and a recipient. It is a company’s triggered-based reaction to a customer’s action based on interaction, events, or preferences. These include: 
- Welcome emails during SignUp 
- Password resets
- Delivery Notifications
- Invoices
- Failed/successful transactions
- Receipts

Transactional emails can greatly benefit businesses. It can increase revenue and engagement through behavioral triggers, build clients’ trust through personalization and help reactivate the inactive users or recover abandoned carts. With a captive audience in mind, marketers include a new sales pitch in transactional emails. 

• Email Newsletters

An e-mail newsletter is a regular email sent directly to the subscribers, who wish to receive updates from your company. Most of the time, it doesn’t carry any hardcore sales message but focuses on maintaining a brand and customer relations. These are sent to subscribers to keep them updated on the latest news and updates about your product or service or any news that interests the customer. The main idea of using the Email Newsletter is to keep the clients connected with the company, even when they are not making the purchase. 

• Mobile Emails

Litmus’s most recent report shows that 53% of emails are being opened on mobile devices. The increase in mobile phone usage is altering the way modern email marketing strategies function. These days’ emails are designed and optimized to suit smartphones and tablets to derive a client’s response. 

A mobile email should be easier to comprehend, load quickly, and contain a clear call to action. If you are in a business that involves online purchases, you can customize an email that quickly displays CTA. This will further facilitate users to click mobile-optimized product pages to engage in a more simplified checkout process. 

Why Email Marketing Matters for Your Business in 2022

1) Cost-effective Marketing Tool 
When compared to mainstream marketing channels, email marketing is a very cost-effective and lucrative strategy. It is estimated that ‘email marketing is responsible for 81% of customer acquisition and 80 % of customer retention. The investment made through email marketing doesn’t involve postage costs or paid for advertisements on billboards, magazines, or televisions. 
However, a marginal amount may be spent by marketers to use the certified email marketing tool to track, automate and estimate the emails. Though such spending is far lower compared to what you pay for marketing efforts through Google or Facebook Ads or other modern marketing channels. 

2) Allows Personalization 
Not every consumer’s needs or wishes are similar. Marketers are advised to spend a substantial about of time studying the buying patterns, requirements, and behaviors of the customers. This is where Email marketing shines the best. It allows customization as per the buying patterns, needs, and behaviors of the customers. It utilizes data analytics and trackers to comprehend the consumer's interests and what products/services or content they like.

 For example, if you are into the eCommerce business and consumers like a particular range of mobile phones, you can personalize a catalog and share emails regarding related products. Besides, marketers can make effective utilization of email automation tools to analyze the area domain and particular requirements and post the content accordingly. 

3) Helps Customer Engagement and Retention                                  
When reaching out to customers, it's important to get that first email address. Connect to your audience by collecting their emails and opting them in for email campaigns. Promotional messages are great tools for educating potential customers about your brand and presenting offers. Send your subscribers some emails with great content like coupons for their favorite products or additional info about how you can help them. However, don't send too many emails a month or else they'll start reporting you to the SPAM folders! 

Good tip: Insert videos and GIFs in between newsletters and make sure your last email includes the "looking forward" statement so they continue to read more of your email marketing campaigns!

4) Easy to Track and Measure
With the proper tool in place, a marketer can easily track the email ROI. He/she can see exactly how many people are receiving, opening, and clicking the email content. It is very easy to see the ROI email marketing campaigns are offering. It also makes the key performance indicators or the KPIs like email open rates, conversions, etc. easily traceable.

If however, you have not achieved the desired result that you aim for, you can still see how far you have reached and how to do it better the next time. Feel free to make amendments to the subject lines, messaging style, and best offers you provide and keep track of the success. You are also able to measure the deliverability, thereby knowing how many people are accessing the material you posted across the email. 

5) Improves Brand Awareness
By talking about the company’s values, mission, vision, services, products, etc. businesses can improve customers’ understanding of the brand. As the customer’s awareness regarding your brand grows, easier it becomes for them to market your product or service. 

To increase brand awareness the chances of brand recall and recognition through Email marketing, always ensure:

• Messages look unique and memorable
• Always include your company name and brand logo
• Maintain consistency thoroughly timely emails”

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